150 SCRAPING ACQUAINTANCE. 
out the brains of rabbits and squirrels is an 
innocent and delightful pastime, as everybody 
knows ; and the delectable excitement of pull- 
ing half-grown fishes out of the pond to perish 
miserably on the bank, that, too, is a recreation 
easily enough appreciated. But what shall be 
said of enjoying birds without killing them, or 
of taking pleasure in plants, which, so far as we 
know, cannot suffer even if we do kill them? 
Of my many pleasant associations of birds 
with places, one of the pleasantest is connected 
with the red-headed woodpecker. This showy 
bird has for a good many years been very rare 
in Massachusetts; and therefore, when, during 
the freshness of my ornithological researches, I 
went to Washington for a month’s visit, it was 
one of the things which I had especially in 
mind, to make his acquaintance. But I looked 
for him without success, till, at the end of a 
fortnight, I made a pilgrimage to Mount Ver- 
non. Here, after visiting the grave, and going 
over the house, as every visitor does, I saun- 
tered about the grounds, thinking of the great 
man who used to do the same so many years 
before, but all the while keeping my eyes open 
for the present feathered inhabitants of the sa- 
cred spot. Soon a bird dashed by me, and 
struck against the trunk of an adjacent tree, 
and glancing up quickly, I beheld my much- 
